Tennis News

SYDNEY, Australia – Former champion Agnieszka Radwanska eased past qualifier Duan Ying-Ying and into the semifinals of the Apia International Sydney on Wednesday evening.

At last week’s Shenzhen Open, Radwanska saved three match points to defeat Duan in a tougher-than-expected season opener. This time around it was a far more straightforward outing, the No.2 seed completing a 6-3, 6-2 victory in an hour and 20 minutes.

“Sometimes you play people two or three weeks in a row, like Caroline and I had last year in Asia, but I’m definitely more happy with this performance than in Shenzhen,” Radwanska said in her on-court interview. “It’s another semifinal here, so I’m very happy with that.

“I was warming up at 4pm and it was still very hot, so I was a little bit lucky to play this evening. I was watching the first match here and it was unbelievably hot – the guys were playing amazingly.”

Despite the more hospitable conditions, both players made heavy weather of holding onto their serve early on. But after a succession of breaks, Radwanska finally put some daylight between the two, opening up a 5-3 lead before calmly serving out the set.

.@ARadwanska takes the first set 6-3! #SydneyTennis pic.twitter.com/4JRVJczZYf

— WTA (@WTA) January 11, 2017

Unlike in Shenzhen, there was to be no Duan comeback, Radwanska rattling off the first four games of the second set to ease her way into the last four.

Radwanska lifted the title in 2012, and standing between her and a return to the final is marathon woman Barbora Strycova. Earlier in the day, Strycova withstood the worst of the midday sun to win an epic encounter against Caroline Wozniacki. “Like I said, she was playing unbelievable tennis and she’s really on fire. Last year she also played amazing tennis. I’m just expecting a good match and we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”

“It's funny when you see your picture (when) walking down the corridor” @ARadwanska on seeing her 2012 champion photo behind the scenes pic.twitter.com/ywMZcAh66K

— Apia Intl Sydney (@SydneyTennis) January 11, 2017

SYDNEY, Australia – Timea Babos and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova hit through top seeds Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova, 6-4, 6-4, to win their first title as a pair at the Apia International Sydney.

Babos and Pavlyuchenkova were playing just their second event together, playing just once at the end of last season in Moscow. Babos ended her seven-month partnership with Yaroslava Shvedova after the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

“I think at least we found a good balance on this,” Babos said after the match. “It was definitely a great week. We beat some really good teams, the best teams, the last two, three rounds.

“To start like this, our partnership together is important and promising.”

Pavlyuchenkova, by contrast, had opted to focus on singles for most of 2016, though the former Singapore alternate is more than capable on the doubles court.

“It’s amazing, because Timea, she’s more experienced in doubles,” said the Russian. “She has a lot more titles and done great in the Grand Slams, as well.

“I’m really happy, because it’s also nice to win a title in doubles. I feel like we had also been playing really good together.”

.@NastiaPav/@TimeaBabos playing strong! ?

Take a 6-4, 3-0 lead over Mirza/Strycova! #SydneyTennis pic.twitter.com/rLEFFMwdQW

— WTA (@WTA) January 13, 2017

Mirza teamed up with Strycova last summer, and the duo were playing their first event of 2017 together after the former No.1 paired with Bethanie Mattek-Sands to win the Brisbane International, passing the top spot to her good friend after 91 weeks leading the WTA rankings. 

Champs! ?@NastiaPav/@TimeaBabos win @SydneyTennis Doubles title!

Defeat Mirza/Strycova 6-4, 6-4! pic.twitter.com/ZyRBmWo2QE

— WTA (@WTA) January 13, 2017

The first set came down to just one break of serve, whereas the second featured four.

“We just went out there and tried to do our game, tried to dictate and play how we always played before and tried, like Timea said, to enjoy and not put too much pressure,” added Pavlyuchenkova.

Babos and Pavlyuchenkova raced out to a 3-0 double break lead in the second set, and though Mirza and Strycova twice clawed the deficit down to one, the unseeded team emerged victorious after one hour and 14 minutes of play. For the fast-rising Hungarian youngster, it was her second title in Sydney.

“This was actually my first year when I played singles here,” said Babos. “Last year I only played doubles. It’s a great tournament. In general, Australia [is] one of my favorite countries if not the favorite. So I really enjoy being here. It’s great atmosphere.”

.@NastiaPav and @TimeaBabos strike a pose with their new @SydneyTennis trophies! ? ? pic.twitter.com/8dhFP412Js

— WTA (@WTA) January 13, 2017

MIAMI, FL, USA – The Miami Open gets underway on Tuesday, with a couple of inter-generational battles headlining the order of play on Grandstand and Court 1.

Tuesday, First Round

Grandstand
[WC] Laura Robson (GBR #504) vs. Kirsten Flipkens (BEL #65)
Head-to-head: Flipkens leads 1-0
When Laura Robson came off court nursing her wrist following a humbling first-round defeat to Kirsten Flipkens at the 2014 Australian Open, even in her worst nightmares she cannot have envisaged what was to follow. Two years of injury woe have derailed one of the game’s brightest young talents, leaving her kicking her heels at home as junior and domestic rivals have stepped into the limelight. Using her protected ranking at Indian Wells, Robson played well for a set before losing to eventual quarterfinalist Magdalena Rybarikova.

In Miami, she renews acquaintances with Flipkens, whose similarly anachronistic game could stymie the Brit’s search to rediscover her competitive groove. Since reaching the quarterfinals at Miami, semifinals at Wimbledon and coming within touching distance of the Top 10 in 2013, Flipkens has been forced to battle her own demons. Having dropped out of the Top 100 last year, the Belgian has been enigmatic this time around, promising showings in Auckland and Monterrey punctuated by several early exits.

Court 1
Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR #59) vs. Daria Kasatkina (RUS #36)
Head-to-head: first meeting
With superb groundstrokes, excellent movement and an impressive temperament, Daria Kasatkina has all the tools to make it to the top of the game. This much was obvious when she shocked Venus Williams in the opening week of the new season to make the tennis world really stand up and take notice. Since then Kasatkina has gone from strength to strength, reaching the third round at the Australian Open, the semifinals at St. Petersburg and, just last week, a quarterfinal at Indian Wells.

On her Miami debut, she takes on Kateryna Bondarenko, another upwardly mobile player – albeit at a very different stage in her career. Since returning to the tour following the birth of her first child a couple of years ago, Bondarenko has been making up for lost time, building on a strong finish to 2015 with credible showings at several big events, highlighted by her run through qualifying to the fourth round at Indian Wells.

Also on court…
Preceding Robson and Flipkens on Grandstand will be a couple of home hopes, Madison Brengle and Nicole Gibbs, who take on Camila Giorgi and Yulia Putintseva, respectively. On Court 1, Barbora Strycova faces Anna-Lena Friedsam, and Margarita Gasparyan meets Annika Beck.

MIAMI, FL, USA – Daria Kasatkina continued her productive trip stateside with victory in a see-saw encounter against Kateryna Bondarenko on the first day of the Miami Open.

Watch live action from Miami this fortnight on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

In the opening months of 2016, Kasatkina has been making great strides up the rankings, gatecrashing the Top 40 for the first time after her quarterfinal run in Indian Wells.

The young Russian carried this form into the early stages of her first-round meeting with Bondarenko, breaking three times to wrap up the first set in 27 minutes. When she then broke in the opening game of the second, a routine victory looked on the cards.

However, such thoughts were soon parked as Bondarenko capitalized on some uncharacteristically sloppy mistakes to level to contest in emphatic fashion. In the decider Kasatkina struck first, before exhibiting tremendous poise to hold onto her own serve in a titanic sixth game and close out a 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 victory.

“I started the match well, but in the second set I started to give her some chances and she came back,” Kasatkina said. “It was really tough to get the momentum back, but I did it and I’m very happy because it’s my first time in Miami.”

Twelve months ago, Kasatkina, then ranked well outside the Top 200, had just qualified for an ITF Circuit event on the other side of Florida, in Palm Harbour. Since then her rise has been rapid, but the 18-year-old is eager for the perks of an even loftier ranking: “Nothing really changed – because I’m still not seeded! It’s just a ranking. If I was seeded I would get a bye, but it’s one more match I have to play.”

Her reward is a meeting with No.5 seed Simona Halep on Thursday. “She’s great player for sure so it will be difficult, but I will watch matches with my coach and we will talk about how to play her.”

Among the other early winners were Barbora Strycova, Teliana Pereira and Zhang Shuai. Strycova needed less than an hour to see off Anna-Lena Friedsam, 6-2, 6-0, while Zhang was nearly as swift in dispatching junior Wimbledon champion Sofya Zhuk, 6-1, 6-2.

In the tournament’s opening match on Grandstand, Pereira had more difficulty winning her all-Brazilian clash with Beatriz Haddad Maia, eventually prevailing 7-6(2), 6-1.